When black communities are abandoned as police forces retreat, homicides and felonies spike in succeeding months, Roland Fryer, a Harvard economists, told WSJ columnist Jason Riley last week in a Manhattan Institute video.

It’s costing black lives. That pains me and no one is talking about it.

When police retreat from policing, there are consequences for black lives.

Democratic Cities run by Liberal Establishments

All of this poses a particular challenge to the liberal establishment that runs most of these cities and states. The mayors of Atlanta and Denver were excellent in distinguishing between peaceful protest and violent destruction.

But others have encouraged rage against police, and so-called social justice prosecutors have risen to power in such cities as Philadelphia, San Francisco and St. Louis.

How will these cities now protect the neighborhoods they claim to represent against violent mobs?

Civil Order Only Way to Address Social Issues

What about the liberal media and intellectuals, who, in general, “live far from the burning neighborhoods as they denounce police”? They portray the riots as an understandable response to social injustice, and ignore that there is no chance of addressing social injustice without underlying civil order.

The main victims of a summer of chaos in America will be the poor and minority neighborhoods going up in flames.